Kandinsky painting sells for $21.2 million at Christie's auction

Kandinsky

Christie's

Detail of Kandinsky's "Study for Improvisation 3."

Detail of Kandinsky's "Study for Improvisation 3." (Christie's)

David Ng

A painting by Wassily Kandinsky has sold for $21.2 million at a Christie's auction of Impressionist and Modern works of art in London. The auction on Tuesday brought in a hefty total of $100.4 million, but the sale lacked any major surprises.

Kandinsky's "Study for Improvisation 3," created in 1909, was the top seller of the evening. The price was in the middle of the auction house's expectation range. The brightly colored landscape painting sold for $16.8 million in 2008.

Tuesday's auction also featured Picasso's 1960 painting "Woman Seated in an Armchair," which sold for $9.6 million, slightly surpassing expectations. The painting once belonged to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Other works that sold at the auction include a small sculpture by Auguste Rodin, titled "Eve after the Sin," which sold for $4.5 million, beating estimates; a small Alberto Giacometti sculpture, "Standing Woman," bringing in $4.1 million, beating estimates; and a Claude Monet seascape painting, titled "Saint Adresse," which went for $4.5 million, also beating expectations.

In May, Christie's posted an auction record at a New York sale of postwar and contemporary art, with total sales of $495 million. Works by Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein and Jean-Michel Basquiat brought in record auction amounts.